X-Men Legends #12 (2022) cover 'Prelude to Excalibur'

The artist most associated with Chris Claremont's Excalibur series offers a cover featuring the two X-Men most associated with that series, who happen to be my two favorite X-Men. Alan Davis was at Heroes Con 2023 donating his time for sketches to benefit the Heroes Initiative program that offers financial relief to comic book creators in health distress. Faced with a piece that lined up so many of my own personal interests, how could I refuse?

A small layout was printed larger in blue and then further penciled and finally inked. The blue border is part of the print-out as well, and for some reason it's slightly rotated on the page, so the whole image is a smidgen clockwise.

X-Men Legends was a twelve part series by Chris Claremont, telling one-shot stories from across his entire history with the franchise. This final installment, a "Prelude to Excalibur," takes place following the "Fall of the Mutants" story, which ended in UXM #227 with the apparent death of the X-Men in Dallas, before they popped up again in Australia, and Kitty and Kurt became part of Captain Britain's team. As implied by the cover, Destiny seeks Kurt and Kitty's help to protect Forge from the vengeance of Mystique. This involves a Misunderstanding Fight with Hardcase and the Harriers, filling in some blanks about Mystique's journey from villain to hero -- well, anti-hero. Scott Eaton and Lorenzo Ruggiero handled interior art.